Pessimist To OptimistHow To Change Your Viewpoint

Pessimist To Optimist –Change The WiringIf you are a pessimist, you see the world to be as bad as it can possibly be. It is a negative view of life, which is harmful to your health. So, develop a new “explanatory style” to change your gloomy view into a vision of a bright and cheerful world.

That view needs an understanding that your happiness comes from within you and that events follow a universal pattern with a stable order. Pessimism is based on an internal conviction that you have no control over events, which occur erratically, without any universally applicable pattern.

A change in your convictions will rewire the neural circuits, which support that view. Your mind and its responses will improve. Your habitual patterns of thought will become brighter.

While optimism has clear links to good health, you can't use your “will” to become an optimist.

Completely subconscious mechanisms decide whether you are an optimist or pessimist.

Pessimism is based on ostensibly reasonable grounds.

Murphy's Law about things going wrong is not the reality of life.

Pessimism is a product of LTP in the amygdala.

Pessimism has unrealistic expectations from life.

Discovering a grand meaning for life is unrealisitic.

Self awareness is the key to a switch away from pessimism.

Identify and still the fear of disappointment.

A Theory of Mind helps to understand and accept the foibles of people.

Identify and still the emotional responses to unexpected setbacks.

Actively search for the positive views of life.

Pessimist
To Optimist –Optimism Is HealthyBoth
optimism and pessimism originate from subconscious pattern
recognition. Those attitudes may partially be inherited, but are
acquired largely through experiences in life. Extensive research on
groups of optimists and pessimists show mixed results. Among those
suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, or asthma, optimists were not
more likely than pessimists to report pain alleviation, or to be
psychologically better adjusted. But, optimists emerge from difficult
circumstances with less distress than do pessimists.

Optimism has
links to good health, including preventative health. An optimist is
less likely to experience illness. Optimism reduces the severity and
duration of an illness and reduces the possibilities of relapses.
Sadly, while it is nice to be an optimist, the attitude is
subconscious and a pessimist cannot just “will” himself to be an
optimist. A change requires your inner wisdom to absorb a few
important insights.

Pessimist
To Optimist –Pessimism Is Not Your ChoiceA
pessimistic interpretation of an event is not your conscious choice.
Your mind senses patterns and acts, before you know it. The famous
experiments of Benjamin Libet demonstrated your essential
helplessness. He showed that, even when you voluntarily press a
button, your motor systems begin to act 350 milliseconds BEFORE you
think you have pressed it. Subconscious processes make your
decisions, way ahead of your conscious awareness.

Within
the instant in which your eyes perceive a group of black and white
pixels on this page, your mind interprets them as a set of characters
forming a word and locates its meaning. As you read, myriad entities
evaluate vast memories, compare your experiences, recall childhood
images, and pass judgment on the validity of this paragraph. You
merely become aware of the final conclusion. If you wish to change
from pessimism to optimism, your vast subconscious mind has to become
convinced that optimism is both justified and desirable.

Pessimist
To Optimist –The Logic Of The PessimistPessimists
challenge a belief in the potential for endless progress as well as
the general religious view that “this is the best of all possible
worlds.” Arthur Schopenhauer speaks for pessimism. According to
him, human beings are motivated by hunger, sexuality, the need to
care for children and the need for personal security and shelter.
Driven by these needs, the selfish instincts of mankind generally
overcome its rationality. This creates endless and pointless
conflicts for earth's limited resources, which will continue till the
extinction of the human race. For Schopenhauer, life presently exists
with great difficulty. If things had been worse, the human race would
not have existed. He reasons that, since a worse world could not
exist, we live in the worst of all possible worlds.

Pessimist
To Optimist –If Anything Can Go Wrong, It WillMurphy's
Law “If anything can go wrong, it will” is the refrain of the
pessimists. Pessimists focus on the things that can go wrong. But,
billions of things do not go wrong. Myriad neurons in your nervous
system, the complex circuits of your monitor and computer, the
worldwide circuits of the internet, power stations, distribution
systems, all do not go wrong for you to be able to read these lines.
The baser instincts of humanity did not prevent the progress of human
civilization from famine and disease to the world of science and
medicine. But, then, Hitler's gas chambers are also recent history.
So, regardless of whether many, or a few things do go wrong, the
world goes on. Optimism and pessimism are merely viewpoints. An
optimist feels gratitude for the trillions of things that do not go
wrong, while a pessimist moans over the things, which can and do go
wrong. Optimism (and happiness) come from the convictions of your
inner wisdom.

Pessimist
To Optimist –LTP and The AmygdalaPessimism
is merely a habitual thought pattern. It appears to be reasonable as
the world encounters Alvin Toffler's Future Shock – the shattering
stress and disorientation triggered by “too much change happening
in too short a time.” Civilization seems to be sinking into moral
decay, where the cherished values of Christian/Greek/Hindu philosophy
appear abandoned. Government encroachments into private lives appear
to head into the “thought police” and “doublethink” narrated
by George Orwell in his novel Nineteen
Eighty-Four.
But, even for a pessimist, these are extreme views. But they are
considered judgments.

Your
judgments of the outcome of events is made by the anterior cingulate
cortex (ACC). The organ evaluates the history of your successes and
failures to make its decisions. ACC has strong links to the amygdala,
the organ, which triggers fear and anger in the nervous system. Their
oversensitive circuits trigger negative emotions, which influence ACC
judgments.

The
pain of a a failure, or a loss triggers persistent LTPcircuits
in the amygdala, causing it to become sensitive over a lifetime to
threatening signals. Impulses from the organ to the brainstem trigger
(typically jumpy) avoidance behaviors. They activate the sympathetic
nervous system, raising blood pressure and heart beats. These
impulses sent to the facial nerves generate expressions of anger,
fear, or disgust. Those impulses release neurochemicals, which
increase the intensity of fight, flight or freeze responses.
Normally, the sensory inputs, which imply threats would only generate
a momentary response from the system. But, LTP builds up during a
crisis in life. Later, it generates persisting control impulses,
which converts a momentary response into persisting distress.

LTP
circuits in the amygdala influence ACC causing the negative thought
patterns of the pessimist. ACC normally builds on current experience
of successes and failures to frame its decisions. It decides whether
a person will be optimistic or pessimistic about the outcomes of his
efforts in life. Those judgments are dictated by the emotional LTP
inputs from the amygdala of past failures. If ACC is dominated by
memories of failure, you will be a pessimist. But, if you can build
up memories of successes in the amygdala by changing its viewpoint
and recalling past successes, ACC can decide to make you an
optimist.

Pessimist
To Optimist –The Wrong GoalsPessimists
should reexamine their expectations from life. A person's goals
decide whether good, or bad things happen. Optimists expect to meet
their goals and pessimists expect to fail. The pessimist cannot meet
his goals, because his goals have unreasonable expectations.
Pessimists expect to discover a larger meaning for their life. They
expect a benevolent outcome for life in the long march of history.
They expect human beings to behave with nobility and altruism. They
expect that fate will not deliver nasty surprises. The gloom of the
pessimists rests on their inner conviction that such expectations
will not be met. Pessimists need to understand that finding cosmic
meaning, the arrival of utopia, the operation of an altruistic world,
or the expectation of a benign fate are all irrational goals in
life.

Pessimist
To Optimist –A Meaningful Contribution?Do
you worry about the meaning of your life? The deeply religious
believe that their lives meet a divine purpose. But, the pessimistic
skeptic will never discover a cosmic meaning for his life. Individual
contributions to history have always been irrelevant. The vast
empires, grand civilizations and the struggles of untold generations
have vanished into the misty past without a trace. Like a grain of
sand in the desert, earth circles one among billions of stars in the
Milky Way Galaxy - one lone galaxy, among billions of such galaxies.
In the vastness of cosmos, the pessimist vainly searches for the
meaning of his life. Without such worries, the optimist discovers
satisfactions within the boundless spaces of his own mind. His joy
comes from his awesome capacity to grasp the immensity of space and
the vast depths of history. The true optimist is self
sufficient.

Pessimist
To Optimist –Self AwarenessLike
a glass, which can be both half full and half empty, both pessimism
and optimism are justifiable. It is only that the optimist lives in a
happier world. If the pessimist wishes to relocate, he has to see his
one sided reasoning. The meaning of his life is irrelevant. Only self
awareness can educate the pessimist of his habitual focus on gloom
and doom. He has to become aware of the rise of negative thoughts.
The immense capacity of his mind should focus on discovering the
brighter side of his world.

Improved
education, health and prosperity are spreading to billions of people.
Each day brings amazing products and services to improve the quality
of human lives. The pessimist should consciously search for hopeful
events and headlines. Actively discover silver linings around dark
clouds. While initially difficult, the pessimist will become skilled
with practice. New LTP “speed dial circuits” will grow in his
mind. Soon, he will begin to see real change within. His creativity
will grow and the world will look brighter. Actually, the world will
not have changed. But the vast internal worlds within the pessimist
will have taken a brighter hue.

Pessimist
To Optimist –The Fear Of DisappointmentPessimism
often follows a serious disappointment in life, like the loss of a
loved one, or a career setback. Since such events occur unexpectedly,
usually just following a happy view of the world, pessimists fear
that optimism could be a harbinger of disaster. Imagining an
optimistic solution to their problems fills them with disquiet. But,
optimism does not presage trouble. It favors a happier outcome. An
expectation of victory triggers more successful strategies than a
fear of defeat. An optimistic leader transmits enthusiasm. Alert
optimism is the best approach to life. But, the pessimist must deal
with his fear.

Self
awareness can make a person familiar with the fears, which rise up in
his mind. This website suggests that emotions disappear, when you
sense their physical symptoms. Identify the negative thoughts, which
rise in your mind, when you visualize the future of your venture.
Sense the symptoms of the fear, which accompany such thoughts. The
emotion will be stilled. Even the fear that optimism will bring
disappointment will disappear. It is a process, which takes a little
practice. Freed from fear, the pessimist should focus on visualizing
successful options in life. Such an approach too will soon become a
“speed dial circuit” - a matter of habit.

Pessimist
To Optimist –Unpredictable PeoplePessimism
often follows an inability to understand the intentions and desires
of other people. Some people are blessed with a mature “Theory
of Mind,”
which understands the attitudes and behavior of people during their
interactions. That creates an order in their lives by giving
surrounding events purpose and meaning. When you know why something
is going to happen, you can adjust better to the situation. An
effective Theory of Mind is a valuable leadership skill, which grants
leaders the empathic ability to imagine being in the shoes of their
followers. When this skill is lacking, rude sales clerks and
aggressive drivers on the road make the pessimist see a dark world.
An awareness and understanding of the underlying issues of such
behavior will prevent needless pessimism. Life has to be accepted as
it comes, with its inevitable potholes.

Pessimist
To Optimist –The Slings And Arrows Of fate“Explanatory
Styles” are decided by emotions. Pessimists wince with each
negative turn in life. “It is all my fault.” “These things
always happen to me.” “Why did this have to happen to me?” “I
knew this would happen to me.” Such explanations of an event are
triggered by persisting negative emotions. Over the longer term, such
feelings can even trigger depression. If you have been a habitual
pessimist, escape such torture by becoming intensely self aware. As
thoughts rise, do not focus on the event, but on the nature of
thoughts and feelings. Become aware of physical symptoms of the
negative feelings as and when they arise. Such awareness will still
emotions over time. Stilling such emotions will transfer controls to
a rational nature. Your explanatory style will change. Your mind will
comfortably accept the usual setbacks in life. “What can I do now?”
will then be the simple unemotional response to such events, which
will prevent needless stress and illness.

Pessimist
To Optimist –On Becoming An OptimistOptimists
emerge from setbacks with less stress than pessimists. They face
problems head on and take active steps to solve problems. They are
also less likely to abandon their efforts to reach their goals. But,
optimism is a frame of mind, an “explanatory style,” outside your
conscious control. The deep intelligence within your mind has to
develop new optimistic “speed dial circuits.” by dwelling on the
memories of your successes in life.

Dig
deep into your memories and discover the times, when you succeeded,
when others acknowledged your skills, or abilities. Dwell on those
events. If possible, take responsibilities for the things you can do
well. Deep inside, you need to become convinced of your ability to do
well. Expect to discover something new and advantageous, even when
you face boring, or depressing situations. A change from optimism to
pessimism requires regeneration of new “speed dial circuits,”
which create a new explanatory style.

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